CHAPTER 10: Llano Guerrero Anahi

SUPERCONDUCTIVITY Elizabeth 2033976

 Superconductivity?

• The electrical resistivity of many metals and

alloys drops suddenly to zero when the
specimen is cooled to a sufficiently low
temperature, often a temperature in the
liquid helium range. This phenomenon,
called superconductivity
• was observed first by Kamerlingh Onnes in Leiden in 1911,
three years after he first liquified helium
• He was a neerlandes fisic nobel de 1913.
• At a critical temperature Tc the
specimen undergoes a phase transition
from a state of normal electrical
resistivity to a superconducting state,
 • When a specimen is placed in a magnetic field and is then cooled
Meissner effect through the transition temperature for superconductivity, the
magnetic flux originally present is ejected from the specimen
 The superconducting state is an
ordered state of the conduction
electrons of the metal. The order is in
The unique magnetic properties of
the formation of loosely associated
superconductors are central to the
pairs of electrons. The electrons are
characterization of the
ordered at temperatures below the
superconducting state.
transition temperature, and they are
disordered above the transition
temperature.
Occurrence of Superconductivity

• Superconductivity occurs in many metallic elements of the periodic system

and also in alloys, intermetallic compounds, and doped semiconductors.
• Several materials become superconducting only under high pressure.
 Will every nonmagnetic metallic
element become a superconductor at
sufficiently low temperatures?
 • A sufficiently strong magnetic field will
destroy superconductivity.
Destruction of
Superconductivity • The threshold or critical value of the applied
by Magnetic magnetic field for the destruction of
Fields superconductivity is denoted by Hc(T) and is
a function of the temperature. At the critical
temperature the critical field is zero: Hc(Tc) =
0.
Meissner Effect
• Meissner and Ochsenfeld (1933) found that if a superconductor is
cooled in a magnetic field to below the transition temperature, then
at the transition the lines of induction B are pushed out.
• The Meissner effect shows that a bulk superconductor behaves as if B
= 0 inside the specimen.
• The Meissner effect suggests that perfect diamagnetism is an
essential property of the superconducting state.
Type I
• type 1 superconductors expel magnetic fields, a phenomenon known
as the messier effect.

TYPE II
• They tend to be alloys or transition metals with high values of the
electrical resistivity in the normal state: that is, the electronic mean
free path in the normal state is short.
• Type II superconductors have superconducting electrical properties up
to a field denoted by Hc2
Heat Capacity
• In all superconductors the entropy
decreases markedly on cooling below
the critical temperature Tc.

• The decrease in entropy between the

normal state and the superconducting
state tells us that the superconducting
state is more ordered than the normal
state, for the entropy is a measure of
the disorder of a system
Energy Gap
• The energy gap of superconductors is of entirely different origin and
nature than the energy gap of insulators

In a superconductor the important

In an insulator the energy gap is interaction is the electronelectron
caused by the electron-lattice interaction which orders the electrons
interaction in k space with respect to the Fermi
gas of electrons.
Microwave and Infrared Properties
• The existence of an energy gap means that photons of energy less
than the gap energy are not absorbed.
• or photon energies less than the energy gap, the resistivity of a
superconductor vanishes at absolute zero.
• Photons of lower energy see a resistanceless surface.
• Photons of higher energy than the energy gap see a resistance that
approaches that of the normal state because such photons cause
transitions to unoccupied normal energy levels above the gap.
• As the temperature is increased not only does the gap decrease in
energy, but the resistivity for photons with energy below the gap
energy no longer vanishes, except at zero frequency.
• At zero frequency the superconducting electrons short-circuit any
normal electrons that have been thermally excited above the gap.
Isotope Effect
• It has been observed that the critical temperature of superconductors
varies with isotopic mass.
• The transition temperature changes smoothly when we mix different
isotopes of the same element.
• From the dependence of Tc on the isotopic mass we learn that lattice
vibrations and hence electron-lattice interactions are deeply involved
in superconductivity.

• MTc = constant
• This was a fundamental discovery:
• there is no other reason for the superconducting transition
temperature to depend on the number of neutrons in the nucleus.
THEORETICAL SURVEY
• the theoretical understanding of superconductors is based on:
• the London equations and the Landau-Ginzburg equations
• theory of superconductivity was given by Bardeen, Cooper, and
Schrieffer
• Josephson and Anderson discovered the importance of the phase of
the superconducting wavefunction.
Thermodynamics of the Superconducting
Transition
• The transition between the normal and superconducting states is
thermodynamically reversible, just as the transition between liquid
and vapor phases of a substance is reversible.
• we may apply thermodynamics to the transition, and we thereby
obtain an expression for the entropy difference between normal and
superconducting states in terms of the critical field curve Hc versus T.
• This is analogous to the vapor pressure equation for the liquid-gas
coexistence curve
• We treat a type I superconductor with a complete
Meissner effect. so that B 0 inside the
superconductor. We shall see that the critical field
Hc is a quantitative measure of the free energy
difference between the superconducting and
normal states at constant temperature. The
symbol Hc will always refer to a bulk specimen,
never to a thin film.
• For type II superconductors, Hc is understood to
be the thermodynamic critical field related to the
stabilization free energy.
• The stabilization free energy of the superconducting state with respect to the normal state
can be determined by calorimetric or magnetic measurements.

• In the calorimetric method the heat capacity is measured as a function of temperature for
the superconductor and for the normal conductor, which means the superconductor in a
magnetic field larger than Hc.

• From the difference of the heat capacities we can compute the free energy difference,
which is the stabilization free energy of the superconducting state.

• In the magnetic method the stabilization free energy is found from the value of the applied
magnetic field that will destroy the superconducting state, at constant temperature.
 London Equation

Explains the form that a magnetic field has to take in order for the
fundamental conditions of the Meissner effect to be met, which are:
• That the magnetic field be zero inside the superconductor.
• That the electrical currents are limited to the surface of the superconductor,
in a layer of a thickness of the order of what is known as the length of
penetration being zero inside.
 The coherence length
The London
is a measure of the
penetration depth is a
distance within which
fundamental length
the superconducting
that characterizes a
electron concentration
superconductor. An
cannot change
independent length is
drastically in a spatially-
the coherence length.
varying magnetic field.
 The coherence length

he London equation is a
the coherence length is a
local equation: it relates
measure of the range over
the current density at a
which we should average A
point r to the vector
to obtain j.
potential at the same point
• It is also a measure of the minimum spatial extent of a transition layer between normal and
superconductor.
• The intrinsic coherence length 0 is characteristic of a pure superconductor.

• In impure materials and in alloys the coherence length is shorter than 0.

• This may be understood qualitatively: in impure material the electron eigenfunctions already have
wiggles in them: we can construct a given localized variation of current density with less energy from
wavefunctions with wiggles than from smooth wavefunctions.
• The coherence length first appeared in the
Landau-Ginzburg equations; these equations also
follow from the BCS theory.

• They describe the structure of the transition layer

between normal and superconducting phases in
contact.

• The coherence length and the actual penetration

depth depend on the mean free path of the
electrons measured in the normal state;
 • The basis of a quantum theory of
superconductivity was laid by the
classic 1957 papers of Bardeen,
Cooper, and Schrieffer.

BCS Theory of • There is a “BCS theory of

Superconductivity superconductivity” with a very wide
range of applicability, from He3 atoms
in their condensed phase, to type I and
type II metallic superconductors, and
to high-temperature superconductors
based on planes of cuprate ions.
we treat the specific accomplishments of BCS theory with a BCS
wavefunction, which include:

• 1. An attractive interaction between electrons can lead to a

ground state separated from excited states by an energy gap. The
critical field, the thermal properties, and most of the
electromagnetic properties are consequences of the energy gap.

• 2. The electron-lattice-electron interaction leads to an energy gap

of the observed magnitude. The indirect interaction proceeds
when one electron interacts with the lattice and deforms it; a
second electron sees the deformed lattice and adjusts itself to
take advantage of the deformation to lower its energy. Thus the
second electron interacts with the first electron via the lattice
deformation.
• 3. The penetration depth and the coherence length emerge
as natural consequences of the BCS theory. The London
equation is obtained for magnetic fields that vary slowly in
space. Thus the central phenomenon in superconductivity,
the Meissner effect, is obtained in a natural way.

• 4. The criterion for the transition temperature of an element

or alloy involves the electron density of orbitals D(F) of one
spin at the Fermi level and the electron-lattice interaction U,
which can be estimated from the electrical resistivity
because the resistivity at room temperature is a measure of
the electron-phonon interaction. For UD(F) 1 the BCS theory
predicts where is the Debye temperature and U is an
attractive interaction.
BCS Ground State
• The filled Fermi sea is the ground state of a Fermi gas of
noninteracting electrons. This state allows arbitrarily small excitations
—we can form an excited state by taking an electron from the Fermi
surface and raising it just above the Fermi surface.

• The BCS theory shows that with an appropriate attractive interaction

between electrons the new ground state is superconducting and is
separated by a finite energy Eg from its lowest excited state.
• The formation of the BCS ground state is suggested by Fig.

• The BCS state in (b) contains admixtures of one-electron orbitals from above the Fermi energy F. At first sight the
BCS state appears to have a higher energy than the Fermi state: the comparison of (b) with (a) shows that the
kinetic energy of the BCS state is higher than that of the Fermi state. But the attractive potential energy of the
BCS state, although not represented in the figure, acts to lower the total energy of the BCS state with respect to
the Fermi state.
• When the BCS ground state of a many-electron system is
described in terms of the occupancy of one-particle orbitals,
those near F are filled somewhat like a Fermi-Dirac distribution
for some finite temperature. The central feature of the BCS
state is that the one-particle orbitals are occupied in pairs: if an
orbital with wavevector k and spin up is occupied, then the
orbital with wavevector k and spin down is also occupied. If k↑
is vacant, then k↓ is also vacant. The pairs are called Cooper
pairs, treated in Appendix H. They have spin zero and have
many attributes of bosons.
 Flux Quantization in a Superconducting Ring

• We prove that the total magnetic flux that passes through a superconducting
ring may assume only quantized values, integral multiples of the flux
quantum where by experiment q 2e, the charge of an electron pair. Flux
quantization is a beautiful example of a long-range quantum effect in which
the coherence of the superconducting state extends over a ring or solenoid.
 Duration of Persistent Currents

A fluxoid cannot leak out of the ring and

thereby reduce the persistent current
Consider a persistent current that flows
unless by a thermal fluctuation a
in a ring of a type I superconductor of
minimum volume of the superconducting
wire of length L and cross-sectional area
ring is momentarily in the normal state.
A. The persistent current maintains a flux
The probability per unit time that a
through the ring of some integral
fluxoid will leak out is the product P
number of fluxoids .
(attempt frequency)(activation barrier
factor) .
 Type II Superconductors

• There is no difference in the mechanism of superconductivity in type I and type II

superconductors. Both types have similar thermal properties at the superconductor-
normal transition in zero magnetic field.
• A good type I superconductor excludes a magnetic field until superconductivity is destroyed suddenly,
and then the field penetrates completely.

• A good type II superconductor excludes the field completely up to a field Hc1. Above Hc1 the field is
partially excluded, but the specimen remains electrically superconducting. At a much higher field, Hc2,
the flux penetrates completely and superconductivity vanishes. (An outer surface layer of the specimen
may remain superconducting up to a still higher field Hc3.)
An important difference in a type I
and a type II superconductor is in
the mean free path of the
We can change some metals from
conduction electrons in the
type I to type II by a modest
normal state. If the coherence
addition of an alloying element
length is longer than the
penetration depth , the
superconductor will be type I.
 The theory of type II
superconductors was developed
by Ginzburg, Landau, Abrikosov,
and Gorkov. Later Kunzler and
co-workers observed that Nb3Sn
wires can carry large
supercurrents in fields
approaching 100 kG; this led to
the commercial development of
strong-field superconducting
magnets.
A superconductor is type I if the
surface energy is always positive
as the magnetic field is
increased, and type II if the
surface energy becomes
negative as the magnetic field is
increased.
 Vortex State.
• The term vortex state describes the circulation of
superconducting currents in vortices throughout the bulk
specimen, . There is no chemical or crystallographic difference
between the normal and the superconducting regions in the
vortex state. The vortex state is stable when the penetration of
the applied field into the superconducting material causes the
surface energy to become negative.

• A type II superconductor is characterized by a vortex state

stable over a certain range of magnetic field strength; namely,
between Hc1 and Hc2.
 Estimation of Hc1 and Hc2.

What is the condition for the onset of the vortex state as the applied magnetic field is
increased?

• We estimate Hc1 from the penetration depth . The field in the normal core of the fluxoid
will be Hc1 when the applied field is Hc1.
• The field will extend out from the normal core a distance into the superconducting
environment. The flux thus associated with a single core is 2 Hc1, and this must be equal to
the flux quantum 0
 Single Particle Tunneling
• Consider two metals separated by an insulator. The insulator normally acts as a barrier to
the flow of conduction electrons from one metal to the other. If the barrier is sufficiently
thin (less than 10 or 20 Å) there is a significant probability that an electron which
impinges on the barrier will pass from one metal to the other: this is called tunneling.
Josephson Superconductor Tunneling

• Under suitable conditions we observe remarkable

effects associated with the tunneling of
superconducting electron pairs from a
superconductor through a layer of an insulator into
another superconductor. Such a junction is called a
weak link. T
• he effects of pair tunneling include:
Dc Josephson effect. A dc current flows across the junction in the absence of any electric
or magnetic field.

Ac Josephson effect. A dc voltage applied across the junction causes rf current oscillations
across the junction. This effect has been utilized in a precision determination of the value
of Further, an rf voltage applied with the dc voltage can then cause a dc current across
the junction.

Macroscopic long-range quantum interference. A dc magnetic field applied through a

superconducting circuit containing two junctions causes the maximum supercurrent to
show interference effects as a function of magnetic field intensity. This effect can be
utilized in sensitive magnetometers.
 • High Tc or HTS denotes superconductivity in
materials, chiefly copper oxides, with high transition
HIGH- temperatures, accompanied by high critical currents
TEMPERATURE and magnetic fields.
SUPERCONDUCTO • By 1988 the long-standing 23 K ceiling of Tc in
intermetallic compounds had been elevated to 125 K
RS in bulk superconducting oxides; these passed the
standard tests for superconductivity—the Meissner
effect, ac Josephson effect, persistent currents of
long duration, and substantially zero dc resistivity.